Archives

Strategies for Building the Therapeutic Alliance More Easily

We all know therapists who seem magically able to establish a powerful sense of trust and connection with even the most distrusting clients. But are there specific behaviors common to exceptionally gifted therapists that we can study, practice, and cultivate?

Repairing the Parent-Child Bond is a Two-Way Street

By Dafna Lender - When difficulties arise between parent and child, most therapists naturally focus treatment on the child. But the parent–child bond is a two-way street, and parents come with their own history. In these situations, I can often find ways to help parents and children connect through attachment-based games that involve elements of silliness, movement, and surprise.

To Keep Clients Tuned In, Sometimes Our Work Has to Be Twice as Interesting as Their Problems

By Courtney Armstrong - The more we learn about the emotional brain, the clearer it becomes: to have real therapeutic impact, we need to create experiences that help clients learn to relate to themselves and the world in entirely new ways.

A Comic-Turned-Therapist's Guide to Dealing with Unruly Clients

By Kirsten Lind Seal - Before I became a therapist, I spent 20 years as a professional performer, during which time I was a regular at standup comedy clubs. Many of the skills I learned as a performer have proven readily transferable to therapy, namely the skill of using humor to defuse tension, create alliance, and challenge what we often call resistance in difficult clients.

Are You The Giver, The Performer, The Observer, or Something Else?

By David Daniels - The typology I’ve found most helpful in organizing my own work and understanding my clients’ lifelong patterns is the Enneagram, a system of personality types. When we can witness our own habit of mind and its repetitive, limiting pattern in a nonjudgmental way with gratitude—which this system facilitates—we gain great leverage in changing our patterns.

This Approach Adds a Crucial Dimension to the Therapy Experience

By Kate Cohen-Posey - Sometimes, when I ask clients to visualize a safe place or a wise inner guide, they struggle to bring these mental images to life. Just the simple external stimulus of visual images, however, can open new doors for them.

Therapists Push Back Against a Cultural Force

By Chris Lyford - Expanding the limited definition of masculinity is prime territory for therapists. But when running up against entrenched social mores, how can we bring about change? A few therapists have found creative ways to make space in therapy for raising more emotionally expressive young men.

Using Art Therapy to Welcome the Unknown

By Lisa Mitchell - As both an art therapist and a marriage and family therapist, I believe that vulnerability, doubt, fear, and uncertainty—feelings most people try to avoid—are essential to getting unstuck. I teach clients how to move beyond "artist’s block," a state of being joylessly trapped in repetitive patterns and rigid expectations, and welcome the type of anxiety around the unknown that creativity invites.

Why Anxiety is a Family Problem

When it comes to working with kids in therapy, it's easy to overlook how critical a role parents play in ensuring the success of treatment. But when so many parents are just as anxious as their children, and many have had negative experiences with therapy in the past, what's the best course of action? In the following interview, therapist Lynn Lyons explains the first thing you need to do when working with young clients and their parents.

Three Rules for Being More Energetic and Interactive in Sessions

By Robert Taibbi - I started improv several years ago. It showed me how to be freer and more creative, providing a unique way of approaching relationships that's generous rather than closed, organic rather than scripted. While the theory and skills of therapy form the foundation of clinical practice, we have little foundation for the creativity that good therapy demands. Doing improv made me wonder whether applying these rules might make me more creative in my work and personal life.